Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviours.
Keep your behaviours positive, because your behaviours become your habits.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gandhi
A friend recently posted this quote by Gandhi on her website. Thought is powerful in regards to pain in ways that defy logic.
About 5 years ago I was in an auto accident. No bones were broken, but my whole body of nerves and muscle were bitterly affected. It took a few years to get out of the funk. And when I was feeling good all I had to do was to be overwhelmed by demands put on me and my body was back in pain again.
One December, school semester was ended, I had submitted grades and all I wanted to do was to sit down in my favorite chair to have a cup of coffee. I was feeling wonderful and happy to be on semester break. Now I could do “my stuff”.
I had been keeping a list of have-to’s. The simple act of unfolding the list and looking at what needed to be done in the next week sent a wave of pain from my head to toes. I felt limp and robbed of my enthusiasm. My body just echoed with ache. I knew I had to lie down and try to meditate or at least relax.
I awoke about an hour later. I tried to rationalize what had happened that morning: I felt energetic, looked at a list of to-do’s and spiraled into pain. What was this about?
I slowly realized that just thinking about things that I felt I needed to do was enough to take the wind out of my sails. So I knew I had to adjust my thinking. I could control pain on some level through my thoughts.
I threw the list away. I allowed myself one to-do. And said that when that was complete, I would add one more to-do. One to-do at a time.
It meant that I had to distinguish between what I needed to do and what I wanted to do. There were a lot things that I had to delegate to others or disregard.
No one was hurt. I felt remarkable better. It was a lifestyle change and it gave me life. Now I know that thoughts alone can be painful.
Have you had the experience that your thoughts alone can cause pain?
How have you dealt with it?
